Wheel assembly

ABSTRACT

An improved wheel for use in a sheet-supporting assembly for a roll of a printing press comprising a hub, an annular race formed on the periphery of the hub, a planar disc having a central opening and mounted in said hub race, and an eccentric opening formed in said disc communicating with said central opening whereby said disc can be selectively positioned on the hub in its central opening operative position for free rotation or on its eccentric opening inoperative position for restricted rotation.

United States Patent Herrington et al.

[ WHEEL ASSEMBLY [72] Inventors: Francis Walter Herrington, 41 Bonnie Brae Blvd., Toronto, Ontario; James D. McClure, 23 Darlington Crescent, Bramalea, Ontario, both of Canada [22] Filed: April 21, 1971 [21] Appl.No.: 135,880

[52] US. Cl. ..27l/5l, 101/420, 271/80 [5 1] Int. Cl. ..B65h 29/20 [58] Field of Search ..27l/5 l, 53, 80, 82; 193/37;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,334,892 8/1967 Janecek et al. ..27l/5l 3,442,506 5/ 1969 Pasquinelli ..f.l0l/420 X [451 Sept. 12, 1972 3,602,140 8/1971 Sudduth ..27l/5l X Primary Examiner-Evon C. Blunk Assistant Examiner--Bruce l-l. Stoner, Jr. AttorneyArne 1. Pets, Frank I. Piper and James T. Wilbur [5 7] ABSTRACT An improved wheel for use in a sheet-supporting assembly for a roll of a printing press comprising a hub, an annular race formed on the periphery of the hub, a planar disc having a central opening and mounted in said hub race, and an eccentric opening formed in said disc communicating with said central opening whereby said disc can be selectively positioned on the hub in its central opening operative position for free rotation or on its eccentric opening inoperative position for restricted rotation.

8 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDSEP 12 I972 1N VENTOR. JAMES D. MCCLURE FRANCIS W. HERRINGTON Agent I 1 WHEEL ASSEMBLY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to sheet-supporting assemblies for printing machines and is particularly directed to an improved wheel foruse in a sheet-supporting assembly for aroll of a printing press.

The use of wheel or roller units in sheet-supporting assemblies for printing machines normally presents the problem of smudging or smearing of freshly'inked sur-' faces by the wheels or rollers as printed paper sheets passabout transfer or inverter rolls of a printing press. Our copendingv Canadian Pat. application Ser. No. 094,739, filed Oct. 5, 1970 discloses an apparatus which. substantially obviates or minimizes the risk of smearing of printed images on such sheets as they pass over inverter rolls of a rotary offset printing machine.

. We have found that it is sometimes desirable not only to axially move a wheel on a support rod of such an apparatus to minimize smearing of ink,{but itis also often desirable to remove sucha wheel from. service such that no physical contact is made with paper sheet. This normally is accomplished by dismantling the sheet-supporting assemblies and removing the wheel or roller units,: necessitating time consuming shut-downs and resulting loss of production.

. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 7 We have found a technique for rendering a support wheel inoperative and out of contact with sheet travelling over a roll of a printing press by offsetting the said wheel outof theplane of theperiphery of the roll through which thesheet passes and by preventing free rotation of the wheel while it is positioned in its offset inoperative location.

V More particularly, our invention comprises an. improved wheel for use in a sheet-supporting assembly for a roll of a printing press, comprising a hub adapted to frictionally engage a support rod for slidable adjustment therealong, first and second external and axially FIG. 2 is a transverse section, partly in elevation, of the structure of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of an embodiment of the disc portion of the wheel of the invention shown in FIG. I, as viewed from the right in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a plan viewof another embodiment of the disc shown in FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS rod and, when so adjusted into a required position, the

spaced-apart annular flanges-provided on said'hub defining an annular race, a generally planar disc having a central opening rotatably mounted on said race, the improvement comprising said disc having a second, eccentric opening formed therein offset from the central opening and in communication therewith by a slot or zone of reduced cross section relative to the race diameter whereby said disc can be selectively positioned on the hub in its central opening operative position for free rotation or in its eccentric opening inoperative position.

It is a principal object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a simple support wheel structure which is available for operative use in supporting sheet travelling through or over a roll of a printing press which permits facile movement of the said wheel to render it inoperative and out of contact with a sheet travelling over the roll.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Other objects of the invention, and the manner in which they can be obtained, will become apparent from thedescription of the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the structure of the present invention;

tongues 14, 16 serve to firmly retain the hub in that required position. I t 3 1 An annular flange 22 is integrally formed on hub 10 intermediate, its ends and bevelled annular lip 24 formed at the end of hub 10 opposite tongues 14, 16, as indicated, defining a peripheral recess 26 between flange 22 and lip 24. I t e a a A resilient elastomeric collar 28 having an inside diameter less than the diameter of lip 24 is adapted to snap flt over lip 24 into peripheral recess 26 and define, between collar 28 and flange 22, anannular race 30.

- With reference now to FIG. 3, there is shown a circular disc designated generally by numeral 34 having a planar body portion 36 and a peripheral flange-38, circular opening 40 is formed centrallyin disc 34 concentric with flange 38 having a diameter less than the outside diameter of collar 28 but greater than the inner diameter of race 30 such'that disc: 34 can be mounted in peripheral recess 26 and positioned by means of collar 28 for freely rotatable movement on race 30.

A second opening 42 is formed in disc 36 radially offset and eccentric from the centralaxis of said disc, as indicated in FIG. 3, and communicated with central opening 40 by a zone of reduced cross section 43 whereby wheel 34 can preferentially be mounted on hub 10 by central opening 40 or eccentric opening 42. It is desirable that although the wheel be freely rotatable when mounted by opening 40, that the wheel not rotate when mounted by opening 42 and this can be ac.- complished by reducing the diameter of opening 42 relative to the inner diameter of race 30 such that the disc makes a snug friction fit in the race when mounted through opening 42, whereby free rotational movement is substantially obviated.

Alternatively, it will be noted from FIG. 3 that an annular ridge 46 is provided on one side of disc 36, together with radial ridges 48, to provide rigidity to the disc. Openings 40,42 can be formed in disc 36 such that the juncture of radial ribs 48 and annular rib 46 will abut one of collar 28 or flange 22 when the wheel is positioned in its inoperative location by eccentric opening 42.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of our invention in which disc 50 has an eccentric opening 52 joined with central opening 54 by a slot 56 of reduced cross-section such that the opposed walls 58,60 of slot 56 will frictionally abut the inner surface of race 30 and thus permit locking of disc 50 in its central operative position or eccentric inoperative position.

The hub, disc and collar preferably are formed from a plastic material such as polyvinyl chloride but it will be understood that certain of the components can be formed of metal, for example by a stamping operation, where desired.

We claim:

1. An improved wheel for use in a sheet-supporting assembly for a roll of a printing press, comprising a hub adapted to frictionally engage a support rod for slidable adjustment therealong, first and second external and axially spaced-apart annular flanges providedon said hub defining an annular race, a generally planar disc having a central opening rotatably mounted on said race, the improvement comprising said disc having a second eccentric opening formed therein offset from the central opening and in communication therewith by 'a slot of reduced cross section relative to the-trace diameter whereby said disc can be selectively positioned on the hub in its central opening operative position for free rotation or in its eccentric opening inoperative position.

2. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 1, in which detent means are provided on said wheel to prevent rotation of the disc when positioned on the hub in its eccentric opening inoperative position.

3. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 2 in which said detent means comprises a shoulder formed on said disc adapted to abut a hub annular flange for frictional engagement therewith for substantially obviating rotational movement of the disc.

4. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 3 in which said eccentric opening has a reduced diameter relative to the central opening whereby the disc frictionally engages the hub race and does not freely rotate in its eccentric position.

5. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 3 in which said hub has a flange integrally formed thereon and a collar formed of an elastomeric material fitted onto said hub a spaced distance from the said flange to pro vide a second flange defining an annular race therebetween.

6. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 1 in which said eccentric opening has a reduced diameter relative to the central opening whereby the disc frictionally engages the hub race and does not freely rotate in its eccentric position.

7. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 6 in which said hub has a flange integrally formed thereon and a collar formed of an elastomeric material fitted onto 

1. An improved wheel for use in a sheet-supporting assembly for a roll of a printing press, comprising a hub adapted to frictionally engage a support rod for slidable adjustment therealong, first and second external and axially spaced-apart annular flanges provided on said hub defining an annular race, a generally planar disc having a central opening rotatably mounted on said race, the improvement comprising said disc having a second eccentric opening formed therein offset from the central opening and in communication therewith by a slot of reduced cross section relative to the race diameter whereby said disc can be selectively positioned on the hub in its central opening operative position for free rotation or in its eccentric opening inoperative position.
 2. An improved wheel as claimed in claim l, in which detent means are provided on said wheel to prevent rotation of the disc when positioned on the hub in its eccentric opening inoperative position.
 3. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 2 in which said detent means comprises a shoulder formed on said disc adapted to abut a hub annular flange for frictional engagement therewith for substantially obviating rotational movement of the disc.
 4. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 3 in which said eccentric opening has a reduced diameter relative to the central opening whereby the disc frictionally engages the hub race and does not freely rotate in its eccentric position.
 5. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 3 in which said hub has a flange integrally formed thereon and a collar formed of an elastomeric material fitted onto said hub a spaced distance from the said flange to provide a second flange defining an annular race therebetween.
 6. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 1 in which said eccentric opening has a reduced diameter relative to the central opening whereby the disc frictionally engages the hub race and does not freely rotate in its eccentric position.
 7. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 6 in which said hub has a flange integrally formed thereon and a collar formed of an elastomeric material fitted onto said hub a spaced distance from the said flange to provide a second flange defining an annular race therebetween.
 8. An improved wheel as claimed in claim 1 in which said hub has a flange integrally formed thereon and a collar formed of an elastomeric material fitted onto said hub a spaced distance from the said flange to provide a second flange defining an annular race therebetween. 